Match Thread - CANCHAMP - Toronto FC at Ottawa Fury - May 23, 2017 (R)

Got our tickets to this one to provide some away support for TFC. Looks like it will be a good crowd as all open stadium sections are showing sold out or low availability. They opened a second section for general admission, too.

I'm expecting to see a lot of TFC players who don't usually get starts as well as some TFC II call ups. I'm looking forward to the chance to see some of TFC's young Canadian talent on the field.

 

The great thing about the amount of depth at the first team level is that they don't have to dip down to TFC II to rotate guys in.

In addition to the guys that GoodDead mentioned, Irwin will probably be in goal which is a story in and of itself as his pro career started in Ottawa.

 

How is the play in this game?

 

people are watching?

 

Apparently not.

 

twitter tells me the Fury are up 2-1 late in the match.

 

Yikes. Toronto was up at half.

 

2 shocking pieces of defending by #TFC. 2 goals by Ottawa.

— John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) May 24, 2017

 

90+2’ Raheem Edwards has been sent off.#TFCLive | #OTTvTOR | 2-1

— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) May 24, 2017

 

It was a poor performance. And optics of losing to a USL team are terrible. But not a disastrous result. Easily correctable next week. #TFC

— John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) May 24, 2017

 

I guess the vaunted TFC depth is a bit overstated.

 

I just watched the second half. I know it's a different squad rotating some different players into the lineup but Raheem Edwards was absolutely dreadful. Incredible how someone playing at such a high level recently could suddenly lay an egg like that. Poor ball movement, horrific defending. Looked like TFC 2010 or 2011 out there.

 

Never saw it but I have seen other teams go through this....when you rotate almost the entire starting 11 but leave some in there....the ones left in the squad can play stinkers....almost like they feel "why me...why do I have to play in this lesser tournament"

 

I saw the game but I don't think it's as bad as it's being made out to be. They played down below the level of their opposition to be sure, however that's not to say that they didn't create more chances than Ottawa. Very poor finishing combined with two asinine mistakes cost them the first leg.

The second leg will ultimately come down to what kind of lineup Vanney will play. Of course the easy thing is the say that Altidore, Vazquez and Bradley should be out there but he still has to put three Canadians in there too. Might we see Osorio, Chapman, Hamilton and Ricketts to start the game with Vazquez and Altidore coming off the bench? Or will he just play the minimum three? Will he put Morrow at RB and Morgan at LB to rest Beitashour again?

 

I would go with as many Canadians as we can muster and just go with it.

The game means nothing......this year the only value to winning this tournament is avoiding a playoff later in the year to determine who goes to the CCL next year.

 

from a fixture management perspective should they bow out now and turn their path to CCL into a 3 match attempt....or win this tie and face either a 4 or 5 match path to CCL?

 

Terrible game for Edwards and Chapman. Endoh didn't look great either. The back line was OK in the first half but started to look disorganized in the second. I'm hoping this has more to do with rust than with anything else. Cheyrou did well.

For the next game, it comes to how badly TFC wants to do in this tournament. They could keep the same line up and see how it goes, or bring out Bradley, Altidore & Vasquez if they want to ensure that they advance. My feeling is that they'll likely do something in between: start with a lighter lineup, but be ready to change things up if they don't start doing well.

 

I was at the game last night. A fun time if a disappointing result. Some comments:

TFC looked like a bunch of players who haven't played together before - which isn't surprising since that's largely what they were. Individually, most of them had more talent than their Ottawa counterparts but Ottawa was a fluid team. Even with that, it took an unfortunate penalty, a stupid error, and some poor TFC finishing for Ottawa to win. TFC's first team would crush Ottawa in the return leg if Vanney chose to trot it out.

Some player comments in no particular order.

Great game by Cheyrou.

Osorio was silent in the first half but really stepped up after Cheyrou went off. He moved into a more Michael Bradley like role and did a decent job at marshalling the midfield.

Cooper was useless. Trying to dribble through multiple defenders, errant passes, no willingness to challenge for 50 50 balls. I was glad to see him subbed off.

Edwards started okay but seemed to get frustrated. By the second half he was not playing intelligently. After the penalty call Irwin was screaming at him but I didn't see why.

Irwin had a good game. He made one huge save and his distribution was good.

Chapman and Endoh couldn't quite click down the right side. They had some decent passing exchanges but couldn't turn it into anything actually dangerous. Chapman had that terrible pass across his own net to set up the winning goal. I'm not sure if it is lack of skill or lack of confidence but Endoh just didn't seem to have the zip to penetrate the opposing defence. He wasn't striking fear into the defender so the defender didn't respect him and, with one exception, was able to mark him close and shut him down.

Hamilton was fairly quiet except for the nice give and go with Cheyrou on the goal.

It was good to see Morgan back. He looked at bit understandably rusty but also looked to be playing out of position so it was hard to say.

I was impressed by Mitchell Taintor. He played a tight game and made some good defensive plays to break up potential scoring chances. The hand ball was unfortunate. It was a valid call but it was an unlucky case of the ball hitting his hand in the box. It wasn't like he was waving his arms in the air or had made a stupid tackle to give up a penalty.

Finally, I credit Ottawa for playing the game. They didn't indulge in a bunch of egregious time wasting when they were ahead late which was nice to see. The Ottawa fans were also great and 7611 is pretty good crowd for a Tuesday night up against the Sens' game six.